Novels of Popular Science and Diffusion of Natural Sciences (1850-1900)

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K16712
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: European literature
• Research Institution: Osaka University
• Principal Investigator: Garrabet Christophe 大阪大学, 言語文化研究科(言語文化専攻), 特任准教授(常勤) (80706870)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 19世紀フランス文学 / 通俗科学小説 / 自然科学

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this research, we examined novels of popular science from three perspectives (epistemology, pedagogy, aesthetics). When authors chose the subjects of novels, they highly considered educational necessities as well as literary effectiveness. To attract and maintain readers’ attention, they tried to present visual effects by making the most of rhetorical effects (metaphor, metonymy, analogy). Furthermore, those novels existed not only for the diffusion of scientific knowledge but also for ideological education. In process of scientific knowledge’s popularization, authors combined what they teach with ideological messages, which are republican and progressive. We can conclude the massive appearance of novels of popular science in the 19th century come from the ideological demand for education of future republican citizens. On the other hand, those novels had a strong scholar incidence, as their literary style and form would become an educational model in French scientific pedagogy.

Free Research Field

19世紀フランス文学